Movie Review: Ice Age Collision Course

Manny, Diego, and Sid join up with Buck to fend off a meteor strike that would destroy the world.

Ice Age: Collision Course part five of the successful digital animation series, begins in the beginning. The very beginning. Scrat, the prehistoric, squirrel, animal thing that has his heart set on cracking a giant acorn is in deep space. Scrat’s breakout appearance in Ice Age (2002) made him the uncontested star of the series. His futile attempts to crack his acorn are reminiscent of the golden age of animation, not old fashioned but fast paced, slapstick, physical comedy. His wild, crazy, starving, nervous energy never gets old and the succulent insides of the acorn continues to be out of his reach.

At times I think, “Is it the movie or me?” This is one of those times. Digging around the internet to see what other reviewers had to say I came across this jewel by Bob Tremblay. It really did make me laugh out loud.

In Ice Age: Collision Course, an asteroid is hurtling toward Earth, threatening to destroy its inhabitants. After 15 minutes of watching this moribund, unimaginative sequel, I was rooting for the asteroid.

Me too Mr. Tremblay, me too. I did have to Google “moribund”. Merriam‑Webster definition is: no longer active or effective : close to failure. : very sick : close to death. That does describe how this sequel feels.

Scrat’s bumbling lands him in a frozen cave, crashing with his acorn into an abandoned spaceship. Astrological history begins to happens after he is flung around space trying to stay in the spacecraft while maintaining control of the acorn.

Spoilers below the cast gallery.

Ice Age: Collision Course continues with Scrat’s very own version of the big bang, barreling through space ultimately creating our solar system and endless space debris.

Life on snowy prehistoric earth, has been good to our old friends: Sid the neurotic lisping ground sloth (John Leguizamo), Diego the grumpy saber-toothed tiger (Denis Leary), and Manny the woolly mammoth (Ray Romano). Ellie (Queen Latifah) and Manny’s daughter, Peaches (Keke Palmer), is now engaged to Julian (Adam Devine). It doesn’t take long to find out, fifty’s sitcom style, that Manny and Ellie are not happy with their future doofus son-in-law. The sitcom continues with Ellie being disappointed that Manny had forgotten their anniversary.

Scrat, still floating around in space, sets off a meteor shower with one very large purple-flaming rock speeding toward earth. Their sitcom problems are forgotten when the realize they need to find cover. Then the story becomes a tangle of subplots and characters.

Buck, the one-eyed weasel voiced by Simon Pegg, returns from the third “Ice Age” film, to explain what is happening and how they can stop it. Using a 2001: A Space Odyssey monolith as his map, he guides them to the valley where meteors have wiped out previous species that inhabited the earth.

Opossum twins, Crash voiced by Sean William Scott and Eddie voiced by Josh Peck, discover static electricity and become one of the highlights of the film.

Too sophisticated for children to dull for adults.

So many subplots so little time. It was disorganized.

50 minutes in Grandma Sloth kidnapping is laugh out loud funny.

Wonderful cast and some good lines.

The mammoth courtship and marriage was just stupid.

Ice Age: Collision Course has so many subplots and characters that you may need a score card.